Rural households’ food security status in Arsi Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Purpose: The study designed to scrutinizing the status of rural households’ food security in Arsi Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. Methods: Primary and secondary data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, FGD, and desk review from total of 336 randomly selected households. To capture clear and comprehensive picture of the household’s food security status in the study area, Household Food Balance Model, dietary diversity, coping strategy index, mean, and cross-tabulations of frequency distribution were used. Result: The number of households prone to food insecurity in the study area accounts for 69.94% which could not acquire minimum daily allowance, 2100kcal during the study period. The result from the Household Food Balance Model indicates that the daily average per capita available for the household was 1743.21, which is far from the nationally recommended 2100kcal. Conclusion: The result from the HDDS revealed that the domination of monotonous dietary for the household in the study area. The coping strategy index shows the presence of moderate to severe food insecurity. Therefore, the issue of food security must receive attention from the government, donors, and other concerned bodies to improve the household-level food security status.